India needs a policy platform for youth to grow and be a better citizen: Samuel Mawunganidze

Jaipur, Ajit Foundation of Rajasthan in association with UNICEF and UNFPA has organised two days programme on ‘Dialogue with Youth on Education, Livelihood and Citizenship’ in line with ‘Youth Policy for Young India’. While India has a distinct advantage of having a very large youth population, most of the states and a whole country needs ‘Youth Policy’ to empower young Indians from parenting, education and professional levels. The programme was chaired by Prof. VS Vyas, Chairman of Ajit Foundation and the chief guests Samuel  Mawunganidze, CFO, UNICEF Rajasthan; Sunil Jacob, State Programme Officer, UNFPA Rajasthan had address the key issues on Youth Policy. 


Samuel Mawunganidze, CFO, UNICEF Rajasthan said, “The share of young population in India is large and requires a proper guideline to make them a good Indian citizens so that they contribute in the growth of the economy of the country. We should make young Indians more independent in terms of giving them more experience while taking their proper care. Education, Health and Cultural growth requires to be leveled up in dealing with youth. Rather than imposing responsibilities we should identify and develop strength in them so that they can take independent decisions of the actions and start taking responsibilities. It is also the duty of a family, community as well as government to give them opportunities to enrich their experience.”
 Prof. VS Vyas, Chairman of Ajit Foundation said, “Young India does not have the advantage of enlightening and meaningful education. Proportion of students who have completed secondary education, which is being considered as the minimum qualification for higher education or for entry to any modern occupation is yet very low. Indian society is highly dissatisfied with the content and quality of education. This dialogue with Youth for the youth is organised for showing the path over the challenges we have in India and suggest some conclusions which can be helpful to the state and central governments to design the youth policy.”
Sunil Jacob, State Programme Officer, UNFPA Rajasthan said, “Rajasthan is still dealing with many challenges in tribal area like child marriages, school dropouts, Gender Discrimination etc. To empower the youth, we must have actionable plans in the Policy.”
Five key researchers also presented their papers under various subjects in line with Youth Policy. Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, Director of Jaipuria Institute of Management has initiated his policy paper on two premises – Incudiveness of Youth in Development Process and Development process in turn must benefit Youth. It highlights the issues of disparity in education system, Employability gap, massification of higher education, globalization and technological adoption, health and happiness of youth. Other participants like Aditi Gupta, Saudamini Pande, Meghmala and Pavan Kumar had also shared their papers and the views on the subject.

India has a distinct advantage of having a very large youth population. Nearly 60 percent of the country’s population is in the age group 16 to 34. With such a demographic structure, two advantages are quite obvious. One, a very large productive workforce is available in the country, and two, proportion of non-working people, people in the age group of 60 and above is much less. In order to spell out the issues and explore possible approaches to sound education, enhancement of employment opportunities and to inculcate a sense of purposefulness among the youth, Ajit Foundation, a civil society institution working with youth for last 23 years, proposes to organize a Consultation and bring out a document on Approach to Youth Policy. The Foundation has earlier organized such Consultations on the Girls Policy in Rajasthan, and Right to Education – The Next Phase.

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